I watched as the words on the page rearranged themselves. I had no time for riddles. No time for games, hidden messages.
My words were simple.
Five across.
Read, in Spanish.
L. I. B. R. O.
Two down.
Belonging to.
O. F.
Five across.
Lunae.
M. O. O. N. S.
I lowered my hand and disappeared.
My last message, all I had left to say. Lena had figured out how to send me the river rock charm, and she would know how to send the Book to me. I hoped. If not, maybe Macon would.
If Abraham still had it, and Lena could get it away from him.
There were only about a thousand other ifs in between. I tried not to think about them, and all the people they involved. Or the danger that always surrounded The Book of Moons.
I couldn’t afford to think like that. I’d come this far, right?
She would find it, and I would find her.
It was the only Order of Things I cared about now.
BOOK TWO
Lena
CHAPTER 19
Mortal Problems
Sometimes Link could be a real idiot.
“Libro what? Book of Moons? What does that mean?” Link looked from me to The Stars and Stripes, scratching his head. You would have thought I was bringing up the subject for the first time.
“Three words. It’s a book, Link. I’m sure you’ve heard of it.” It was only the book that had destroyed our lives, and the lives of all the Casters in my family before me on our sixteenth birthdays.
“That’s not what I meant.” He looked hurt.
I knew what Link meant.
But I didn’t know why Ethan was asking for The Book of Moons any more than Link did. So I just kept staring at the newspaper in the middle of the kitchen.
Amma was behind me, and she didn’t say a word. She’d been that way for a while now—since Ethan. The silence was as wrong as everything
else. It was strange to not hear her banging around in her kitchen. Even stranger that we were sitting around Ethan’s kitchen table trying to figure out the message he’d left in today’s crossword puzzle. I wondered if he could see us or knew we were here.